The Stacker News before Stacker News was 'WitCoin'web.archive.org/web/20111007212909/http://witcoin.com/help
2108 sats \ 19 comments \ @k00b 16 Aug meta
I got tagged in discussion about the origin of zaps by @dk. It reminded me of all the instances of zaps that I was made aware of after starting SN.
The earliest instance, as far as I know, dates back to 2011 with a site called WitCoin which used custodial onchain bitcoin for zaps and fees. I learned about it from this comment by @cointastical:
Did you know?
Long before Stacker.News, there was Witcoin. Back when BTC/USD was under $1.
Witcoin UI was pretty basic, but along the same lines as SN (pay in BTC to post, to comment, to upvote, etc, and the OP got most of the payment for upvotes and comments, and the site got its cut).
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Witcoin https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2516.0
tl;dr: Custodial wallet. Eventually abandoned and outstanding balances rugged.
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216 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 16 Aug
Good old days. Free faucet giving out . 05 btc
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @DEADBEEF 17 Aug
Times were simpler back then…
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @dk 16 Aug
can’t keep a good idea down! ⚡️
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110 sats \ 5 replies \ @oliverweiss 16 Aug
Oh, very nice, never heard of witcoin. So it was very short lived. Why was that?
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234 sats \ 2 replies \ @cointastical 17 Aug
It was too early.
The size of the bitcoin "community" was a miniscule fraction of it today, which itself is a miniscule fraction of the broader Q&A/Link sharing social media landscape (from which Reddit, Stack Overflow, etc. are frequented by).
Also, early bitcoiners were not fond of dropping 0.01 BTC (~$0.01) just to reply to a post, for example.
The two founders, an ideas guy and a dev, kind of clashed if I remember correctly. If I remember correctly the dev was open to shitcoinery. And then the dev had a number of issues with his personal life. Witcoin stagnated and before completely wilting away, was hacked, and shuttered.
In other words, Witcoin did not have a K00b -- not even close.
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110 sats \ 0 replies \ @Fabs 17 Aug
All that, but especially:
In other words, Witcoin did not have a K00b -- not even close. (And team, of course 😉)
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30 sats \ 0 replies \ @oliverweiss 17 Aug
Thanks, very interesting../
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56 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b OP 16 Aug
Many of us say SN is early and WitCoin was 10 years early-er.
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @oliverweiss 16 Aug
Indeed, and surprisingly soon after Bitcoin was born.
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20 sats \ 2 replies \ @BitcoinAbhi 17 Aug
I have come to this field quite late. So I hadn't heard about it.
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31 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b OP 17 Aug
Most people hadn’t. @cointastical is the only person that’s ever brought it up
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinAbhi 17 Aug
Today I will try to know a little more about it.
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10 sats \ 2 replies \ @OneOneSeven 16 Aug
That’s a fun fact.
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20 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b OP 16 Aug
Do I still get a prize @grayruby?
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 16 Aug
You will have to add to the fun fact friday post and take your chances.
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35 sats \ 1 reply \ @Golu 17 Aug
So, you got this idea from 'witcoin'?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 17 Aug
I wasn’t aware of witcoin as I said in one of those links.
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55 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 16 Aug
Vitalik also interviewed the founder of another bitcoin using social media platform called UpTweet in 2012.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 16 Aug
I remember large faucets....but I never saved the coins.
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